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| - With my recent adventures into all things vegetables, Hibiscus seemed like a great spot for me to try another salad in Toronto. I've seen the rave reviews from their Kensington location and so their Assembly spot seemed perfect. Im not sure what happened but compared to my recent salads from The Goods, Fresh, K&K, and Veghed, this one wasn't in the same category.
There are a lot of great things about Hibiscus aside from being in the great Assembly Chef Hall. I wrote a whole novel on how great the concept and atmosphere is. With Hibiscus, its sits on the upper level with a nice open space and it's not in the crowded smaller hallway. Service here is very friendly and nice. Their counter and area is spotless.
Their menu has a lot of good variety... everything from savoury crepes, their famed 42 ingredient salad, to desserts like vegan ice cream and crepes. They also have several bars and other baked treats that sounded incredibly tempting. For me, it was easy to decide on a salad with 42 ingredients.
42 ingredient salad - I like this salad because it has so many wonderful ingredients and the texture is great... crispy pieces here, crunch there, and chew bites in between. Visually its really wonderful. Taste wise... it was like eating undressed vegetables. It felt like it wasn't seasoned or closely dressed. There was no acidity, savoury herbs, or any vibrant spices. I love a great salad with as many ingredients as you can throw into it but I also need it to have a flavour that brings it all together. Still admire it for the sheer volume of vegetables though. 3.5/5
Cashew and cranberry bar - It's a very flavourful baked good but its quite dense like a nut butter. It makes sense since there are just wonderful giant gobs of the nutt butters in this. There are the occasional dried cranberry to break up the nut butter and gooey dense cookie base. I wouldnt say this is brownie chewy but rather buttery dense. Either way, a great sweet snack. 4/5
I'd definitely come back to try their ice cream or their soup but maybe I'll hold off on their salads unless I'm on some sort of vegan bend. Even then, I'd still need a good kick of flavour on my vegetables.
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